Fake tan timebomb; Chemicals can cause cancer and birth defects

[Decadence]

This was posted on the sun website this morning ! As a Sienna X spray tanner we are a little worried






By JANE HAMILTON, Consumer Writer
Published: Today at 00:52
FAKE tan users were last night warned they face a health timebomb from chemicals in top-selling lotions.


Danger ingredients include hormone-disrupting compounds — known as gender benders — along with carcinogens.

Other components in the chemical cocktail include allergy-causing skin irritants and substances which release poisons — including cancer-causing formaldehyde and nitrosamines.

Pregnant women who apply the tanning lotions are being told they could face a higher risk of birth DEFECTS.

Experts say men and women could suffer FERTILITY problems and stars like TOWIE girl Lauren Goodger using the lotions may also be exposed to an increased cancer risk.

Jacqueline McGlade — executive director of the European Environment Agency — said: “It would be prudent to take a precautionary approach to many of these chemicals until their effects are more fully understood.


Brownie point ... Lauren Goodger with an Essex tan
Flynet “They may be a contributing factor behind the significant increases in cancers, diabetes and obesity and falling fertility. It’s the cocktail effect.”
And Elizabeth Salter-Green, of the UK charity the Chem Trust, said: “Many of the chemicals in fake tan are toxic to reproduction and can harm a foetus.”

The effects are thought to be greater than for other cosmetics as the tan is applied all over the body several times a week.

Fake tan sales are worth £100million a year in the UK and are the fastest-growing area for cosmetic sales. A third of women and one in ten men admit to using it.

Most tans contain dihydroxyacetone (DHA) which reacts with the amino acids on the skin’s surface to turn it brown.


Spray warning ... 'danger ingredients' in lotions
Stewart Williams Lindsey McManus, Deputy CEO, Allergy UK said: “There are chemicals such as formaldehyde, MSG and tartrazine amongst others, which could cause concern for allergy sufferers, if used on a regular basis and especially over a long period.”
Alyson Hogg of Vita Liberata, a UK firm that has developed the only fake tan free from dangerous chemicals, said firms used them as they were “cheap and easy”.

Last night cosmetics manufacturers insisted all ingredients were safe.

Dr Chris Flower, director general of the Cosmetics, Toiletry and Perfumery Association, said: “There are stringent EU laws covering the manufacture of cosmetic products.”

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[xxclairexx]

Just read this in the Sunday sun... It makes it sound like vita liberate is the only safe tan you can use, I'm sure that's not true. I wonder how many people will stop tanning after reading it.

 

[collin]

I'm sure that's not true. I wonder how many people will stop tanning after reading it.

Not many i suspect )))

Absolute tosh is being reported yet again by the gutter press simply to sell papers.
If spray tan applications were potentially harmfull....do you really think you would be able to get insurance for undertaking this treatment???

 

[zm85]

Scaremongering at its best yet again according to the british press there is not a lot we can do these days if eveyone followed advice like this we'd be walking around like starved unwashed smellies because we can't eat certain things or wash using certain products etc.... its getting ridiculous now!! Don't know how they get away with publishing articles like this and the sad thing is many people will listen to this utter garbage

 

[chocolatepickle]

Well it must be true, if its in such a well respected Newspaper like 'The Sun' :lol:

 

[mini4mum]

Its also on the Daily Mail website - (I don't know how to put a link in) Do we think this will have an effect on the Spray Tanning world?

 

[lila22]

Its also on the Daily Mail website - (I don't know how to put a link in) Do we think this will have an effect on the Spray Tanning world?

'Fake tan can cause fertility problems': Users warned the lotions could harm unborn babies and trigger cancer | Mail Online

Done x x

 

[Decadence]

It's does not really matter what newspaper it is printed in ! The point is that people will read it and because it's in print they will believe it !

Imagine that a person goes to court for a suspected pedo case and it's reported in the paper, but at the end of the case he's found to be not guilty the damage is already done !

We have contacted Sienna X and are awaiting a reply

 

[Holistic2010]

Can you please let me know what they say? We use Sienna too!

 

[unas escarlata]

What a load of scaremongering rubbish!! (Polite version of what I ACTUALLY said!)

Anyone who studies the MSDS of their products will know what ingredients they are putting on their clients skin. High end reputable brand tans like Nouvatan (my choice) do not contain these ingredients.

I'm seeing this as a positive. I will be contacting all of my tanning clients to reassure them that my products are safe and encouraging them to book in. Make the press work for you, not against you.

 

[tina1987]

Once again the papers love a bit of drama.

All products have to go through strict regimes to get onto the market so if they were so harmful how pass all the restrictions?

Every product we use on our body, shower gels, shampoos, soaps, everything has chemicals in!!

I doubt this will have an effect on our business but as a Sienna X user I hope Sienna publish some worthy defence to this report.

 

[jemjem33]

I think it sounds like very clever marketing from the company named in the article.
Defiantly made me look at their website using the advertising link on the sun website.
And 80% organic... How can something be 80% organic?! It either is or it is t... Yes probs 80% of ingredients used are organic

 

[Moosebat]

I think it sounds like very clever marketing from the company named in the article.
Defiantly made me look at their website using the advertising link on the sun website.
And 80% organic... How can something be 80% organic?! It either is or it is t... Yes probs 80% of ingredients used are organic

Totally agree. We at "not going to advertise " are 100% organic so can't say we were too happy about this blatant advertising and blatant untruth. :irked::grr:

 

[Nails<3]

I think it sounds like very clever marketing from the company named in the article.
Defiantly made me look at their website using the advertising link on the sun website.
And 80% organic... How can something be 80% organic?! It either is or it is t... Yes probs 80% of ingredients used are organic

That's what I thought as soon as I read it.

Quite sad really

 

[cheekychick]

At the end of the day there is bad in pretty much everything we use/do.
We are told deodorant, certain make up, sunbeds etc are bad for us but many still use them.
Same with cigarettes and alcohol thousands of people die of lung cancer & alcoholism each year yet many still drink and smoke.
Xx

 

[furiousfrog]

I was so annoyed when I read this! I had a customer text me, telling me to read the story in the paper and when I came on here saw this thread.

After some investigation, the stories have come directly from this company's idiotic press relations company "Sparkles PR" who have published a press release titled: "pHenomenal - xxxxxxxxxx launch the first range containing solely non-toxic ingredients and lasts 2-3 weeks".
(btw - one application lasts 7 days but you have to apply it 3 times for it to last 2-3 weeks?!!! How is that any different from a normal tan?!)

I think the title's really very irresponsible to imply that other companies provide tans with toxins in, even if they don't say that outright in the article.

Nevertheless, the damage has been done as the daily rags like the Sun and Mail have taken the story and ran with it! They may think they're being very clever with their press release but most people will read the first couple of paragraphs and go away with the impression that all tans cause cancer - I'd say they've cut their nose off to spite their face!

I was actually going to try this range too, but after this ridiculous attempt at marketing (which actually can damage lots of people's livelihood), I'll never touch them!

 

[Vix]

This has prompted me to have a look on vita liberata web site. They are using Fake Bake, White to Brown and St Tropez in the news page to highlight the chemicals used. mmm hope these companies come back with a reply, as it seems quite slating.

 

[Moosebat]

We are just sickened they are saying only company when there are certainly more than 1 if that is the route tanners want to take. I hope the companies mentioned as the "bad guys" deal with it (but doubt that will make headline news :wink2

 

[shedunlop]

I agree, and thousands of people get cancer that live healthy lives. I am undergoing treatment at the moment for a Fibrosarcoma in my leg, I will have over 6 weeks of daily radiotherapy once I recover from the operation I had 5 weeks ago.

I have never smoked, I only have maybe one or 2 Margaritas or G&T's a week, I hate sunbathing and don't spray tan myself. I cook my food from fresh too with lots of fruit and vegetables.

I fully intend to live my life and stop worrying about what can give me cancer. My cancer is very rare, about 0.4 people in a million get this one so where is the sense in that. It's like perfectly healthy runners etc dropping down dead with heart attacks etc.

Within reason we should not worry about these things, everything in moderation. You would probably have to ingest gallons of the stuff to have any harmful effects and when you've been around as long as I have you see these scares come and go and they don't have any effect on our businesses anyway.:wink2:

 

[Ruth Mills]

My goodness, some of the chemicals they are mentioning are completely tenuous in the context of spray tan solutions... MSG is monosodium glutamate, which is a flavour enhancer; you're more likely to find it in a bag of crisps or a Chinese takeaway than in a bottle of spray tan solution!

Tartrazine is a yellow/green dye found in cheap sweets and fizzy pop; I guess it's feasible that it might turn up in a bottle of "el cheapo" spray tan solution, perhaps as one of the constituents of the guide colour, but it's not going to have much effect (if any at all) at browning your skin.

Benzophenone-3 is a sunscreen... Oxybenzone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - so I guess it would have some use in protecting the skin from UV if present in tanning solutions.

Sulphur Dioxide would probably be present, if at all, as a preservative. But there are other substances that I'd expect to see in spray tan solutions rather than sulphur dioxide; the parabens, for example, or DMDM-Hydantoin.

However, none of the above chemicals are what I'd consider essential ingredients in tanning solutions; the key ingredients in tanning solutions being DHA (dihydroxyacetone), which they did mention in the article - but which is pretty harmless (you could quite happily eat it without much if any in the way of ill effects, as it would be processed by your body as a sugar) - likewise with erythulose, which is a 4-carbon sugar (whereas DHA is a 3-carbon sugar). Then some tanning solutions might possibly contain juglone (walnut oil) or lawsone (from henna), which stain the skin brown via a process called Michael addition - which I think off the top of my head is different chemically from the Maillard reaction where DHA and erythulose react with amino acids in the skin. While I'd be less inclined to want to risk eating juglone or lawsone (versus DHA or erythulose), I'd consider neither to be a particularly nasty chemical when applied to the skin by a trained professional in accordance with the product's instructions.